Naked Science Forum

Life Sciences => Plant Sciences, Zoology & Evolution => Topic started by: amalia on 16/12/2019 14:32:48

Title: Why are cats afraid of cucumbers?
Post by: amalia on 16/12/2019 14:32:48

Mike has a very interesting question for us:
Why are cats afraid of cucumbers?
Do you know the answer?

Title: Re: Why are cats afraid of cucumbers?
Post by: syhprum on 16/12/2019 16:31:48

If cats are indeed afraid of cucumbers (please show evidence) the only thing I could suggest is the smell, how about an experiment with other similar shaped or coloured vegetables to see if they have any effect.

Title: Re: Why are cats afraid of cucumbers?
Post by: Bored chemist on 16/12/2019 19:28:08

I suspect that they are bothered by "something odd that they didn't see or hear creeping up on them"

Title: Re: Why are cats afraid of cucumbers?
Post by: syhprum on 16/12/2019 21:10:53

The most frequent explanation seems to be that they have an inbuilt fear of snakes that the cucumbers resemble.

Title: Re: Why are cats afraid of cucumbers?
Post by: alancalverd on 17/12/2019 07:16:01

I've seen a dog, probably tenth generation urban mongrel, freeze at the sight (or maybe smell) of a snake. So I guess cucumbers either smell like snakes or look like them.

Next: blindfold a cat (wear protective gloves!) and offer him various sandwiches: tuna, tuna and cucumber, cucumber. If no dislike of cucumber smell, paint a cucumber red and remove the blindfold.

Title: Re: Why are cats afraid of cucumbers?
Post by: Bored chemist on 17/12/2019 07:33:57

Quote from: alancalverd on 17/12/2019 07:16:01

paint a cucumber red and remove the blindfold.

Do cats have colour vision?

Title: Re: Why are cats afraid of cucumbers?
Post by: Colin2B on 17/12/2019 08:35:39

Quote from: Bored chemist on 17/12/2019 07:33:57

Do cats have colour vision?

Some research suggests colour blind with red being another shade of green. They don’t appear to have as much saturation as human vision so colours more subdued.